José Cuatrecasas (1903–1996) was a Spanish

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

. He was born on March 19, 1903, in

Camprodon Camprodon (; from ''Camp Rodó'' "Round Field", ultimately from Latin ''Campus Rotundus'') is a small town in the comarca of Ripollès in Girona, Catalonia, Spain, located in the Pyrenees, near the French border. History The settlement of Campr ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. His research focused on the high-elevation

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

and sub-páramo regions of the

Andes Mountains The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, especially the flowering plant families

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

and

Malpighiaceae Malpighiaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Malpighiales. It comprises about 73 genera and 1315 species, all of which are native to the tropics and subtropics. About 80% of the genera and 90% of the species occur in the New World ( ...

. He played an important role in the founding of the Organization for Flora Neotropica. In 1997, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

established the José Cuatrecasas Botanical Fund to "support significant research projects that emulate the spirit of the research of José Cuatrecasas". The Smithsonian also awards a José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany annually.

Honors

*1950

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

Multiple plant species have been named for him, including ''

Narcissus cuatrecasasii ''Narcissus cuatrecasasii'' is a species of the genus '' Narcissus'' (daffodils) in the family Amaryllidaceae. It is classified in Section ''Jonquilla''. It is a native of the southern Iberian peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Ar ...

'', '' Joseanthus cuatrecasasii'', ''

Pradosia cuatrecasasii ''Pradosia cuatrecasasii'' is a species of plant in the family Sapotaceae. It is Endemism, endemic to Colombia. References

Pradosia, cuatrecasasii Endemic flora of Colombia Vulnerable plants Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named ...

'', and ''

Tessmannianthus quadridomius ''Tessmannianthus quadridomius'' is a species of plant in the family Melastomataceae. It is endemic to Colombia. Its name refers to botanist José Cuatrecasas: "quadridomius" is Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to t ...

'' (where "quadridomius" is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "cuatre casas").Curiosities of Biological Taxonomy: Etymology: People
compiled by Mark Isaak; published February 26, 2015; retrieved March 18, 2015

Sources

* Kirkbride, Ma Cristina Garcia. "José Cuatrecasas (1903-1996)". ''Taxon'', Vol. 46, No. 1 (February 1997), pp. 132–134. *"Botanical Endowment at Smithsonian", ''Biological Conservation Newsletter'', No. 170 (August 1997)

External links

Cuatrecasas Medal

References

20th-century Spanish botanists Botanists active in South America 1903 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American botanists {{spain-botanist-stub